Friday, August 6, 2010

He always loves to lay in whatever yarn I'm working with or at the least when he's been denied the yarn bed, alongside of my leg so he can feel my elbow on his back while I'm knitting or crocheting. He's also a camera hog when I want to take photos of my work. But who could say no to that face?!!

This afternoon, I decided to put my new ball winder to the test. I've used it a few times before and wasn't happy about the fact that it has issues handling a 50 gram ball of worsted weight. I had been puzzling on how to resolve that issue and I figured it out! What I needed was to extend the bole of the piece where the yarn winds onto. I found a cardboard toilet paper tube fits over the original bole but it had to fit snuggly. 5 of those veggy elastics (the ones wrapped around the cauliflower) carefully applied on top of each other around the plastic bole and the toilet paper tube fit snuggly with no wiggle. I notched the tube just like the plastic one, attached my yarn and started winding. It works!!! It can now handle a 50 gram ball of ww yarn with no issues. I keep an eye on the winding yarn to make sure it's going where it should and let the yarn run through the fingers of my right hand from the ball to make sure it doesn't snag or have knots. Here is the fruit of my work! Gorgeous balls of fire engine red yarn all made up into pretty cakes.

Now I have yarn to start testing a 12x12 crochet square for SmoothFox!... and no Gambit in sight! Uh oh, spoke too soon, here he is looking up at me begging to be allowed on the desk so he can snuggle the yarn. Should I?

Thursday, August 5, 2010

I recently crochet tested a square for SmoothFox called the Lemony lime citrus square. I really liked the way it came out and proceeded to make another using the same colors. Inspiration struck and here is what came of it.

I used various crochet techniques throughout. The side panels and bottom are made of smaller versions of the first 4 rounds of the Lemony lime square and the shoulder strap is made from tunisian crochet (my adaptation using a regular crochet hook) which gave me a super solid strap that naturally curled inwards on itself and gave the effect of a covered bamboo handle. I hand sewed the interior lining and voila! My very own retro flower child bag. I've had many compliments since I started using it this week.

The side panels made up of smaller versions of the main motif.

I did a staggered top stitch to assemble the bag.

I love how the stitches make it look like covered bamboo.

Love those buttons! How retro!!

I needed a way to close this bag that could be used in different ways. I crocheted a separate piece for the closure and found 2 cloth covered buttons that are very retro. i sewed the buttons on each side of the opening and then added the button on closure. This way the bag can be opened from either side and the closure can actually be removed when more space is required.

The next one I make, I will add a cell phone pocket and key fob to make it easier to find the 2 most used items from a bag. And I will also make a pattern for the lining before I sew up the bag. The cloth I used to make the lining had to be french-seamed throughout which made it rather tedious when you're doing it all by hand. At least I know it will be sturdy.

This is not a pattern for a beginning crocheter mind you. The instructions are somewhat confusing at times and I also changed the trim around the arm holes. The pattern called for a round of double crochet but when I completed it, the whole look of the vest changed. Not even remotely feminine with that round of chain fencing. So I ripped back and did a round of picots, the same used to trim the rest of the vest.

I'm quite happy with the finished look. I have it on a hanger to see how it will stretch. Being a light worsted cotton, trying to block this beast is not something I want to try any time soon.

I do hope my daughter likes it :)

These are from Doris Chan's book Everyday Crochet. They are basically like cuff links, but for closing any crocheted garment, especially if you don't want to have it button always at the same spot which risks of stretching that area. These can be moved anywhere along the front edge of the vest depending on what look you want.

Here is a close up of the button/cuff links I made using beads, buttons and elastic jewelry thread for the vest.